


Fade Away

by KaytiKitty



Series: Sanders Sides One-Shots [17]
Category: Sanders Sides (Web Series), Video Blogging RPF
Genre: Ambiguous/Open Ending, Angst, Character Death, Deceit Sanders Angst, Gen, Original Character(s), Parent Deceit Sanders, Sad, Sympathetic Deceit Sanders, Sympathetic Remus Sanders
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-07-07
Updated: 2019-07-07
Packaged: 2020-06-23 20:25:39
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,070
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19708780
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/KaytiKitty/pseuds/KaytiKitty
Summary: Based on a prompt by @sidespromptblog. Patton unknowingly causes the dark sides to fade away (die) and Deceit has to watch his family disappear.





	Fade Away

Anger cried out. Deceit glanced at Remus, hoping the creative side could come up with a plan or an idea or something to say. Anything. Lust, Greed and Sadness were huddled together in the doorway, all three of their faces morphed with terror. 

"Dad!" Anger called out and reached his hand out. His hand fell right through Deceit's own. "It hurts," Anger whimpers. "So bad. I don't wanna go. Please help. Dad, Remus, Lust, Saddie, Greed. Please!" 

"You're okay," Deceit lied. "The pain is going away soon, it's going away." It wasn't a lie, the pain was going away but they all knew Anger wasn't going to be okay. The youngest sides eyes stared blankly at the ceiling. 

"I'm so sorry," Anger whispered, "I didn't want to hurt Thomas."

"Remus," Deceit begged the creative side. "Tell us a story." Deceit shot a look at Remus and the chaotic side sank to his knees beside the dying trait. 

Sadness, Lust and Greed shuffled forward to be by their brother's side while he slowly left them. 

"Once," Remus began, his voice filled with the same dramatic and slightly crazed tone he normally used. "At the end of class, little Joan's teacher asked the class to go home and think of a story with a moral. The following day the teacher asks for the first volunteer to tell their story."

Little Talyn raises their hand. 'My dad owns a farm and every Sunday we load the chicken eggs on the truck and drive into town to sell them at the market. Well, one Sunday we hit a big bump and all the eggs flew out of the basket and onto the road.'"

When the teacher asked for the moral of the story, Talyn replied, 'Don't keep all your eggs in one basket.'"

Little Adri went next. 'My dad owns a farm too. Every weekend we take the chicken eggs and put them in the incubator. Last weekend only eight of the 12 eggs hatched.'"

Again, the teacher asked for the moral of the story," Remus didn't pause the story when Angers face seemed to flicker out of existence even though Sadness was sobbing and tears were falling silently from Deceit's face. 

"So Adri replied, 'Don't count your chickens before they hatch.'" Anger flickered one final time and then his legs disappeared and didn't come back. Remus' first instinct was to grab for him, protect him. But he knew he couldn't, so he kept talking. 

"Next up was little Joan. 'My uncle Ted fought in the Vietnam war, and his plane was shot down over enemy territory. He jumped out before it crashed but could only take a case of beer, a machine gun and a machete. On the way down, he drank the case of beer. Then he landed right in the middle of one hundred Vietnamese soldiers. He shot seventy with his machine gun, but then he ran out of bullets! So he pulled out his machete and killed twenty more. Then the blade on his machete broke, so he killed the last ten with his bare hands.'

The teacher looked a little shocked. After clearing her throat, she asked what possible moral there could be to this story.

'Well,' Joan replied, "Don't fuck with Uncle Ted when he's been drinking.'" Remus finished the joke with energetic jazz hands. Each of the sides produced giggles, trying so desperately to ignore the empty space in front of them where Deceit's head was resting on the carpet instead of Anger's chest. 

"You're so not smart, Remus. So awful at jokes and not creative in the slightest," Deceit said. Remus grinned at the compliment. 

"He's gone," Sadness said softly, then he broke into loud sobs and collapsed into Dee's arms. "Dad, he's dead!" 

"If Thomas is getting rid of us then who is next?" Lust asked. Fear was evident in the room even as Deceit lied. 

"None of us are next. We're all going to be okay." 

It was a week, only a week, a mere seven days. It was one week before Greed woke up screaming in pain. Sadness and Lust ran out of their rooms. Everything was the same as it was when Anger faded and hopelessness layered the air of the dark sides common room. 

Remus set Greed onto the carpet. Deceit and Remus shared a look before the snake side kissed Greed's forehead. Greed looked at him and gave a pained smile. "Bye, dad." 

Dee held in his broken sob as he rose up and pulled the other two little sides along with him. They didn't need to see this again. 

As he left he heard Remus tell a joke. "So, this whole time you've been acting like Thanos when you're really Spider-Man." 

They got to Dee's room and Dee quickly got Delilah out of her enclosure. The green and yellow five foot snake instantly curled around her owner. She had been the sweetest since the day Remus made her and Dee knew that Roman most likely provided her. Remus' creations were never this pleasant. 

"Del!" Sadness sniffled out while holding out his arms. Dee barely had time to move closer before the snake was launching itself at the crying side. Lust was sitting on the edge of Dee's bed, Delilah's tail resting on his lap. 

There was silence as Sadness sobbed into Delilah's smooth scales. Neither Lust or Deceit could find the words to say. They heard cries of pain every so often but it was drowned out by Remus growing louder with his song or story. 

"Which of us is next?" Sadness asked. He raised his eyes and looked between Deceit and Lust, worry painted across his features. 

No one had an answer. 

The nightmares came easily to all the dark sides. The vision of their companions slowly disappearing from their arms. Remus went to Thomas, to try and sway him. To break Morality's hold but it was no use. Remus got beat up by Logic and came back defeated. 

It was useless. Deceit was going to lose all his family. 

Lust went next. Much less screaming involved. He came to breakfast one morning, looked his dad right in the eye, and said he was dying. Sadness cried, Deceit served Lust some pink dyed pancakes cut into the shape of hearts, and Remus did what Remus did best. Grossed them all out and told horrible jokes. 

Lust flickered for a lot longer than the other two. He wasn't ready to die yet and Deceit could see the determination in his eyes. If Morality wasn't his opponent Lust might have actually won. 

The four remaining sides cuddled on the couch. Sadness tried to rest his head on Lust but fell right through and landed on Remus instead. "No!" Lust cried out. "I don't want to go! I don't want to die! Dad, please, do something, I-I-I-" The words faded out as Lust did. 

Remus stood, anger clear on his face. "We can't keep sitting here and letting this happen. We have to stop this!" Sadness and Deceit looked at him, watching his outburst. Sadness sniffled back his tears, and looked at Remus with hope. 

"Is there anything we can do?" Sadness asked softly. Remus looked to Deceit and the father figure could see it in his eyes. There was no plan, no way out, it was out of their control. 

"Yes," Deceit lied tenderly, running his scaled hand through the hair of the only young side remaining. "Yes, there's a way." 

The pained gasps of the side in Remus' arms had Deceit stumbling back. Even Remus struggled to joke, struggled to think of a way to help. These sides looked at Deceit as a father and he had to watch them all die because Morality couldn't get a hold of himself. Morality… It was all Morality. 

Dee clenched his fists and grinned, a villainous smile making its way into his face. Morality did this and he would fix this. He had too. 

Remus and Deceit stood quietly in the empty common room, the quiet was a stark contrast to the very nature of the dark sides. 

"I should say goodbye to Roman," Remus said. He met Deceit's eyes. It was the first time Dee had ever seen anything but a crazed look in his eyes and he hated it. Dee wanted the Remus who couldn't be phased to come back. But that Remus was fading. 

Deceit swallowed hard. "I think we should talk to Patton. Make him stop." 

"We won't though," Remus commented. "We're scared of him, for good reason it seems." 

  
  


Roman gasped and clutched a hand to his chest. Logan cut off from his lecture so everyone could look at the pained prince. "Roman, you okay buddy?" Thomas asked. 

Roman didn't answer, just put a hand to his head. "Are you sick?" Virgil asked, concern blurring with worry in his voice. Patton and Logan both stepped towards Roman, both intending to examine him. 

"No!" Roman cried and threw up a hand to stop the others. "Not me. Remus, something's wrong." 

"We could summon him to us and find the stressing factor," Logan offered. Thomas and Virgil both recoiled, Virgil hissing. Patton seemed torn. "If Roman is in pain it is even more likely that Remus is experiencing similar symptoms, if not to a worse extent." 

"He's right, Kiddo," Patton said to Thomas and Virgil. "If Remus is hurting then we should help." Thoams and Virgil met each other's gaze, taking in Patton's words. 

Thomas nodded. "Yeah, let's do it." 

  
  


Dee clung to Remus in a python grip. "Don't leave me here, not here alone. Remus, stay, please stay. Fight it, stay." 

"Can't. Morality wants us gone, so it will be. The only thing that can undo thousands of years of survival instincts: morals." Remus winced as another shooting pain shot through his body, starting in his chest and hitting every nerve down to his toes. 

"I don't want to be alone," Dee mumbled. Remus smiled at him with all the vigor he could muster, which didn't compare to his usual flair, and opened his mouth to start a sentence before his eyes widened and he popped out. Deceit screamed. 

"No, no, no, not like this." 

When Remus appeared in Thomas' living room beside his brother he attempted a smile but only managed a pained grimace. "Good evening, how may-may I assist you?" His voice was pitched lower than normal and a gasp forced its way into the sentence. 

Roman reached out to grab his brother but his hand went right through him. Virgil growled and sunk into his hoodie. Everyone watched in stunned silence as Remus reached out to grab onto Roman, a desperate and pleading motion. 

"Everybody dies," Remus sang in a pathetic mockery of his own song. 

"What?" Patton asked, horrified. "You can't die, you're a part of Thomas!" 

"He's fading," Logan and Virgil both said at once, one voice calculated and the other terrified. The two glanced at each other, Logan quickly noticing Virgil's distress immediately began to explain and solve the issue. "Fading is when Thomas decides he no longer needs a side and the side is... erased in a way." 

"Thomas is a good person now, or he will be after Deceit gives in too. I guess not everybody sins," Remus shrugged dramatically. He waved goodbye and then he began to become transparent. Roman yelled at the others to do something. 

Patton had saddened tears dripping down his face and Thomas watched in fear. Virgil had buried himself in his hoodie. Logan watched Roman and Virgil with a careful eye, being sure the dark side fading didn't affect them other than emotionally. 

"Perhaps," Logan started, "Perhaps we should speak to Deceit." 

Deceit popped up beside Logan in Thomas' home. He looked unnaturally pale and sickly, his scales were flaky and his eyes dull. 

"What a pleasure it is to be here," Deceit drawled, sarcasm heavy in his voice. "What? Morality wanted to gloat? He's got his way? They're all dead now." 

Patton gasped in shock. "Why would Patton be bragging about the fading of the other sides?" Logan asked. Roman and Patton were both crying while Thomas just looked confused. Virgil is the one who answered Logan's question and the words brought them all to a stop a sense of dread sinking in all of their chests. 

"Pat's the one who killed them."


End file.
